Fired. BNSF says workers are ‘too fat’

CHICAGO — At the BNSF Corwith intermodal yard here, the railroad has dumped a contractor and said it intends to hire its own workers to load and unload containers and trailers onto and off of flat cars, reports Chicago News Cooperative. This comes after BNSF told many o [...]

Rail traffic continues growth trend

U.S. Class I railroad traffic continued its growth trend through the Christmas holiday week, reports the Association of American Railroads. Carloads were up almost 30 percent versus the same holiday week in 2009, and intermodal (trailers and containers on flat cars) was up mo [...]

NS Crescent Corridor gains federal funds

Norfolk Southern has won final funding from the U.S. Department of Transportation for its long planned 2,500-mile Crescent Corridor linking New Orleans, Memphis and the Northeast, reports the Journal of Commerce. The Crescent Corridor improvements, when completed, will increa [...]

Former KCS GC Bob Martin dies at 80

SHAWNEE, Kan. — Robert G. Martin, a former UTU general chairperson (GO 457) on Kansas City Southern Railway, died here Dec. 24 at age 80. A native of Beaumont, Texas, he was a member of UTU predecessor Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen, and, later, UTU Local 20 in Beaumo [...]

Illinois, Amtrak, UP agree on HSR project

Some $1.1 billion in federal grants for high-speed rail between Chicago and St. Louis are about to flow to the State of Illinois after the Illinois DOT, Amtrak and Union Pacific reached an agreement on how to accommodate freight and passenger trains on the affected track, rep [...]

2 pacts reached on Florida East Coast

Two tentative four-year agreements have been reached between the UTU and Florida East Coast Railway (FEC). One of the tentative four-year agreements covers FEC conductors, engineers, trainmen and yardmen represented by the UTU. The second tentative four-year pact covers FEC y [...]